Marcus Tullius Cicero→Furius Crassipes|c. 50 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
Although I recommended the Bithynian tax company to you in person as carefully as I could, and although I understood that you wished, both from my recommendation and from your own inclination, to help that company in every way possible, the people whose interests are at stake thought it important that I also show you by letter how well disposed I am toward them. I have therefore not hesitated to write.
I want you to know that, while I have always been very willing to do all I could for the whole order of publicani [private contractors who collected public revenues], and owed them that because of their great services to me, I am especially friendly to this Bithynian company. By the rank and character of its members, this company is a major part of the state, since it is made up of men from the other companies as well. As it happens, many of its members are very close friends of mine, above all Publius Rupilius, son of Publius, of the Menenian tribe, who is currently the manager of the company and whose special business is now at issue.
Since that is so, I ask you with more than ordinary earnestness to protect Gnaeus Pupius, who works for that company, with every courtesy and generosity in your power. Please see to it, as you easily can, that his services are as pleasing as possible to the partners, and that through you the property and interests of the partners - and I know how much power a quaestor has in such matters - are defended and advanced as much as possible.
You will do me a very great favor. At the same time, from experience, I promise and guarantee that if you help the Bithynian partners, you will find them mindful and grateful.
CCXXXVI (Fam. XIII, 9) TO P. FURIUS CRASSIPES (QUAESTOR OF BITHYNIA) CILICIA Although in a personal interview I recommended as earnestly as I could to you the publicani of Bithynia , and though I gathered that by your own inclination, no less than from my recommendation, you were anxious to promote the advantage of that company in every way within your power, yet, since those interested thought it of great importance to them that I should inform you by letter what my feeling towards them was, I have not hesitated to write you this. For I wish you to believe that, while I have ever had the greatest pleasure in doing as much as possible for the order of publicani generally, yet this particular company of Bithynia has my special good wishes. The company, owing to the rank and birth of its members, constitutes a very important section of the state for it is made up of members of the other companies; and it so happens that a very large number of this company are on extremely intimate terms with me, and especially the man who is at the present time at the head of the business, P. Rupilius , son of Publius , of the tribe Menenia, the master of that company. Such being the case, I beg you with more than common earnestness to protect Cn. Pupius , who is an employee of this company, by every sort of kindness and liberality within your power; and to secure, as you easily may, that his services shall be as satisfactory as possible to the company, while at the same time determining that the property and interests of the partners — as to which I am well aware how much power a quaestor possesses — should be secured and promoted. While you will in this be doing me a very great favour, I can at the same time from personal experience give you my promise, and pledge my word for it, that you will find the partners of the Bithynia company mindful of and grateful for any service you have rendered them.
IX. Scr. anno incerto. CICERO CRASSIPEDI SAL.
Quamquam tibi praesens commendavi, ut potui diligentissime, socios Bithyniae teque quum mea commendatione, tum etiam tua sponte intellexi cupere ei societati quibuscumque rebus posses commodare, tamen, quum ii, quorum res agitur, magni sua interesse arbitrarentur me etiam per litteras declarare tibi, qua essem erga ipsos voluntate, non dubitavi haec ad te scribere. Volo enim te existimare me, quum universo ordini publicanorum semper libentissime tribuerim plurimum idque magnis eiud ordinis erga me meritis facere debuerim, tum in primis amicum esse huic Bithynicae societati, quae societas [ordine,] ipso hominum genere pars est maxima civitatis—constat enim ex ceteris societatibus—, et casu permulti sunt in ea societate valde mihi familiares, in primisque is, cuius praecipuum officium agitur hoc tempore, P. Rupilius P. f. Men., qui est magister in ea societate. Quae quum ita sint, in maiorem modum a te peto, Cn. Pupium, qui est in operis eius societatis, omnibus tuis officiis atque omni liberalitate tueare curesque, ut eius operae, quod tibi facile factu est, quam gratissimae sint sociis, remque et utilitatem sociorum—cuius rei quantam potestatem quaestor habeat, non sum ignarus—per te quam maxime defensam et auctam velis. Id quum mihi gratissimum feceris, tum illud tibi expertus promitto et spondeo, te socios Bithyniae, si iis commodaris, memores esse et gratos cogniturum.
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Although I recommended the Bithynian tax company to you in person as carefully as I could, and although I understood that you wished, both from my recommendation and from your own inclination, to help that company in every way possible, the people whose interests are at stake thought it important that I also show you by letter how well disposed I am toward them. I have therefore not hesitated to write.
I want you to know that, while I have always been very willing to do all I could for the whole order of publicani [private contractors who collected public revenues], and owed them that because of their great services to me, I am especially friendly to this Bithynian company. By the rank and character of its members, this company is a major part of the state, since it is made up of men from the other companies as well. As it happens, many of its members are very close friends of mine, above all Publius Rupilius, son of Publius, of the Menenian tribe, who is currently the manager of the company and whose special business is now at issue.
Since that is so, I ask you with more than ordinary earnestness to protect Gnaeus Pupius, who works for that company, with every courtesy and generosity in your power. Please see to it, as you easily can, that his services are as pleasing as possible to the partners, and that through you the property and interests of the partners - and I know how much power a quaestor has in such matters - are defended and advanced as much as possible.
You will do me a very great favor. At the same time, from experience, I promise and guarantee that if you help the Bithynian partners, you will find them mindful and grateful.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
IX. Scr. anno incerto. CICERO CRASSIPEDI SAL.
Quamquam tibi praesens commendavi, ut potui diligentissime, socios Bithyniae teque quum mea commendatione, tum etiam tua sponte intellexi cupere ei societati quibuscumque rebus posses commodare, tamen, quum ii, quorum res agitur, magni sua interesse arbitrarentur me etiam per litteras declarare tibi, qua essem erga ipsos voluntate, non dubitavi haec ad te scribere. Volo enim te existimare me, quum universo ordini publicanorum semper libentissime tribuerim plurimum idque magnis eiud ordinis erga me meritis facere debuerim, tum in primis amicum esse huic Bithynicae societati, quae societas [ordine,] ipso hominum genere pars est maxima civitatis—constat enim ex ceteris societatibus—, et casu permulti sunt in ea societate valde mihi familiares, in primisque is, cuius praecipuum officium agitur hoc tempore, P. Rupilius P. f. Men., qui est magister in ea societate. Quae quum ita sint, in maiorem modum a te peto, Cn. Pupium, qui est in operis eius societatis, omnibus tuis officiis atque omni liberalitate tueare curesque, ut eius operae, quod tibi facile factu est, quam gratissimae sint sociis, remque et utilitatem sociorum—cuius rei quantam potestatem quaestor habeat, non sum ignarus—per te quam maxime defensam et auctam velis. Id quum mihi gratissimum feceris, tum illud tibi expertus promitto et spondeo, te socios Bithyniae, si iis commodaris, memores esse et gratos cogniturum.